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"Sleep well, Nickie."
"Good night, Quinn," he said and then added, "I love you."
"I love you, sweetheart."
Thaddeus leaned over and planted a kiss on her cheek. "Thank you for the stories."
"Thanks for the friendship."
"See you in the morning, Quinn." Thaddeus said before he helped Sara up the hill.
"I'll be right back. Wait for me." Archer brushed his lips over hers, allowing them to linger for a moment, before he pulled back and winked at her.
"Rogue," she whispered.
He turned and started after the others as they made their way up the hill to Lady Scarcliff. The glow from the pale moon made them look almost ethereal and then before her eyes they started to fade. Panic gripped her.
Archer walked up the hill feeling more content than he ever remembered feeling. He had his family, his friends and the woman he loved all living under his roof. Quinn had given him that, she had given him his family back.
He had just reached his mother when Quinn screamed, "Archer!" and he knew, before he even turned around, that they were out of time. He tried to reach her but wasn't fast enough as she faded before his eyes. Her hand reached out to him, but when he tried to grab it she was gone.
All that remained of her was her softly spoken vow that echoed into the night, "I will love you, always and forever.
He fell to his knees and roared his anguish to the heavens.
Chapter Nine
"Thank God, Quinn, we didn't think you were ever going to wake up."
Quinn looked around in confusion then saw her mother standing over her looking as if she hadn't slept in a month. She tried to speak but was quieted by her mother's hand on her shoulder.
"I'll get the doctor," she said frantically pushing the call button by the bed.
Quinn reached for her mother's arm and managed to ask, "What happened?"
"We almost lost you but you're awake now, thank God." The worry was evident in her mother's eyes. "Quinn, you were in a car accident and have been in a coma for over two months."
And at those words Quinn allowed herself to slip back into the darkness.
Part Two
"And miles to go before I sleep......." -- Robert Frost
Chapter Ten
When Quinn was finally conscious long enough to understand, her mom supplied her with more details about the accident that led up to her coma. Apparently, Derek and she never made it to Whispering Winds; their car had been hit by another driver who lost control on the motorway outside of London. Derek had suffered only minor injuries where as Quinn, on the side where the car hit, knocked her head so hard she was rendered unconscious, in a coma, for two months. When she first woke, she was agitated and angry, but as the days passed Quinn grew confused. How could she have been in a hospital bed and romancing the past at the same time? Was it possible that her time with Archer had just been a fantastic dream based on the lure and mystery of a place that had captivated her imagination for almost a decade?
Her parents and brothers were initially distraught but when they realized that she was going to be fine, they seemed to pull it together. A week after she woke, they reluctantly returned to their lives in the States but not before leaving explicit instructions for her to take it easy and call, all of them, every week. Quinn smiled: sometimes being smothered was nice.
Shortly after her family's departure, Quinn was released from the hospital. The doctors were confounded by her rapid recovery and how no physical therapy was required. She even heard phrases like 'medical miracle' tossed around. In truth, Quinn felt better than she ever had with not a single ache or pain to complain about. How it was possible that she could be in a car wreck that landed her in a coma for two months and come out of the head trauma with no lingering side effects, she didn't know. Of course, Quinn was convinced that she had spent those two months in an entirely different scenario.
She often thought of Archer and missed him to the point of pain. He had said that she might not believe that their time together had been real, so as soon as she was released from the hospital she made the journey to the village near Whispering Winds. To save her sanity, she needed to find Morgan's grave where Archer had buried her betrothal ring. When she reached what should've been the cemetery her disappointment was almost painful because where there should have been headstones were instead a field of grazing sheep.
It didn't pass her notice that the village she walked through looked nothing like the quaint little village she had "visited" before her accident but then Quinn apparently never made it to Whispering Winds or this village.
Was it all a dream? She couldn't make herself go to the castle for fear that she would see it as she had, empty and desolate, proof that her adventure really had only been in her head.
Chapter Eleven
